Hero's Return 11 Hidden Heroes

Inside the storm barrier. The village had always been a place where the villagers lived in a carefree manner so a curfew was a completely foreign concept to them, the sudden appearance of this storm shocked some but they quickly just accepted it, after all, there would be no point in doubting the sudden storm, no one can predict nature. With the vicious rain and the occasional thunderclap, all of the villagers were either in their homes already, standing under some kind of shelter to wait for the storm to pa.s.s or were sprinting to either of these two options. Inside a luxurious looking house was a family of 3 watching the storm outside. "Rayns" Selica said whilst smiling at her husband, the storm did not affect her mood and she was currently cooking "What do you think Sora would want?" Rayns was currently distracted by the storm happening outside. After a moment of silence, Selica spoke up once again.

S: "Rayns!"

R: "Huh, what?!"

Rayns had been startled by this sudden shout and looked back at his wife.

R: "Um, yeah? What?"

Selica sighed, looking back at her husband she repeated the question.

S: "What do you think Sora wants for food?"

R: "He's not exactly picky, just do what you want to do."

Selica had always wanted to provide Sora with the best life she could without completely spoiling him, Rayns had also been extremely careful in what he bought and gave to Sora so that he wouldn't feel too rich compared to others. Sora had grown very kind to those around him and was willing to do anything to make friends with anyone, never trying to purposefully make enemies, that does not mean he would excuse someone doing something evil. If someone was rude to a friend of his with no good reason to he would not hesitate to stand up and fight for his friends (Both figuratively and literally), Sora would often train with his sword and gauntlets in his backyard, if he wasn't doing this he would hang out with the other children in the village or try to help the older people in the village. The villagers, whilst not all good, had survived by relying on each other and working together, naturally, they would take notice of Sora with his constant desire to help out people even if he wasn't physically or mentally able to. This good impression that the village as a whole had of him made him very popular. His childlike desire to help people was just something that made everyone gravitate towards him.

Sora was only 6-years-old and he had already gone on some hunts, not difficult ones and he did not do much besides applying mild treatment of wounds, but for how young he was the stronger hunters of the village were very impressed with the child's performance. The hunters of the village were a proud but humble group of people that were very close to each other, each hunter trusted the other and they were always willing to welcome new members into their ranks, whilst there was no ranking of power there were definitely some members stronger than others. In this world anyone could learn magic, it was simple manipulation of the natural essence that one is surrounded with, this was the simplest form. There were also other forms of magic such as Seth's h.e.l.lflame which he procured through intense training and trial and error, one could use magic in many ways and one could also learn magic in many ways, so the warriors in the hunter group were either those who had higher physical ability or those who could freely manipulate magic on the field.

Sora came down the stairs and had overheard the conversation.

So: "Dad's right, you can do what you want mom"

Selica stared at her husband and her son and smiled.

Se: "You two... you really are the exact same person. I bet the only reason you told me to decide is that you guys are too lazy to think of something."

Selica turned to a nearby cupboard and opened it to find a metal pan inside, she used her magic to lift the pan and kept it suspended in midair, she gathered some meat and other ingredients and sliced them all into tiny pieces using some miniature wind blades, she had a very good memory of where everything was in the cupboards, it was mostly her that placed them there after all, after cutting everything down the ingredients floated into the metal pan that was still suspended in midair and a spark began to appear under the pan that slowly grew into a flame. There was now a metal pan floating in midair with a floating fire beneath it. They had seen it so many times but it had impressed them every time they saw it.

R: "Impressive"

So: "Awesome"

Se: "Don't embarra.s.s me."

As she put a metal lid over the pan she walked into another room and came out with a sphere of floating clothes then walked into another room and came out with that same sphere of floating clothes now submerged in a spinning torrent of water. Selica had been an above average mage, actions like these did not take up much of her energy but required accurate and precise control - she was already used to laundry work and cooking due to her time with her husband, having a son just mostly doubled what she had to use in these two. These things had become second nature to her over time and she didn't mind doing it anymore. The magic that Selica had been used to was never any offensive magic, mostly supportive magic, making fire appear and using wind to make things float was easy though as they were the most simple forms of magic manipulation - she didn't even have to think about it any more, she did it on reflex.

Her husband, Rayns specialised in a very rare and difficult type of magic, time and s.p.a.ce. This magic was very difficult to manipulate and learn as whilst it's natural essence was always present everywhere you went, it was extremely hard to sense and even if you could, it would still be extremely difficult to manipulate it. Gaining vast knowledge in time and s.p.a.ce magic would undoubtedly lead to great power as a mage, knowing just how to manipulate it would already put you in a cla.s.s above most mages. Rayns was one of the rare people who could sense and manipulate it easily, he had been studying it since his younger years but still found it difficult to gain a wide understanding of it, the most he could do was freeze time in a decently wide s.p.a.ce for a couple of seconds, whilst it was only for a couple of seconds this was quite impressive. Not even the 100 Legends could escape the binds of time and s.p.a.ce, this isn't a reason to believe that all mages who specialise in time and s.p.a.ce are the most powerful mages out there, whilst they can freeze time and s.p.a.ce, a Legend would either run as far away as possible from the field or would make sure that they weren't in danger from an attack, such as a fire mage covering themselves in fire before the field disappeared or an ice mage creating a ma.s.sive globe of ice with them in the middle, if the caster decided to run away a Legend or an Extreme could easily make up the distance with their speed after the field disappears. Rayns could also use it to freeze a single target for a longer amount of time or speed up time for a single target too, he could teleport short distances and manipulate the gravity of the area to attack or defend. Other than that he was practically a normal human, anyone who could use time and s.p.a.ce magic would be limited to time and s.p.a.ce magic alone, it was a very specific mutation.

R: "I'm not lazy! I'm just... indecisive..."

Selica looked at him with a smile.

Se: "Yeah yeah okay."

Selica teased him as she left the room once again. Rayns turned to his son who was currently playing with their dog Reiner, the comment his wide made about him before she left had made him uncomfortable and looked straight at Sora.

R: "Hey, Sora, I'm not lazy. Right?!"

Sora looked at his father and looked back at Reiner, he whispered something to Reiner and they both left to the upstairs rooms. Seeing this Rayns saw that his son had not-so-subtly dodged his question and had moved upstairs to play with Reiner. Reiner had obviously gotten used to Sora and had acted as an older brother to him, constantly playing with him and running around with him whenever he went outside. Rayns sighed but focused his attention on the storm outside, he was suspicious of its abnormally quick appearance but had no way of finding out if it was a spell or not, but after 3 hours of it raining down, he also accepted that it was just a one-time thing. "Food's done" Selica had already prepared the table and Sora came down with Reiner, the happy family ate around their table and, whilst waiting for the storm to pa.s.s, eventually, fell asleep. Completely unaware of the heroes who had saved them.

Standing outside listening on their conversation was a black-haired boy who disappeared. In another house was 4 individuals dressed in brown, fur clothes. The people here were Seth, Xion, Dezrin and Iona.

S: "Well that was boring, just like the last one these guys weren't that fun to go against. I think they were the lowest of the top 50, there's a huge gap between each of the top 50 in the extremes. If it was just one of us, it would definitely have worked. But I don't think that guy thought that all 5 of us were here, otherwise, he wouldn't have sent just 5 of them, or if at all."

X: "They were definitely in the lowest part of the top 50, I've never heard of them so they were probably some of the reclusive members."

Out of all of the 4500 Extremes, there was people, low and high rank that would stay reclusive and hide from the world, this might be because they were only interested in being stronger and stuck with solitary training or they just didn't like to be around people for any reason at all.

I: "I couldn't really do much... I just gave my brother some unnecessary support."

D: "Unnecessary?"

I: "I know you could have fought him without my help"

Iona pouted as the only reason she cast her most powerful spell on her brother was one, she was caught up in her resolve and wanted to something to compliment it and two, her brother had asked. However, he was also caught up in his resolve, it was overkill on the demon.

D: "Well... I was caught up in some... stuff..."

I: "What stuff?"

D: "Um... I was remembering... stuff..."

I: "What?"

D: "Listen at the time it just felt like the right thing to do..."

Iona was about to say something but she stopped after thinking about it.

S: "I feel like your sister is the only one that's so easily able to make you fl.u.s.tered, actually no, Xion can too I guess..."

X: "Yeah you better not forget about me."

The door opened and a black-haired boy walked in.

I: "Natu? How did it go?"

N: "Good, took a while but the father eventually chalked it up to a one-time thing. he's the only one that was suspicious of it, he should have sensed something weird about the storm through his spatial awareness."

The team had naturally learned of the magics owned by the parents, they were the family of their leader after all, they had also run an investigation that led nowhere into Reiner, the wolf that spoke to Natu and could sense them even when they had cloaked themselves.

X: "Well, as long as they don't seem to find it suspicious enough to investigate further we're good to go."

S: "Well yeah I guess."

I: "So what do we do now?"

With the battle they had just fought and with all of their resolves stronger than before they felt weird to return to their normal lives in the village, whilst it was all an act at first they found themselves making friends with most of the people in the village too. Seth and Xion had become drunk many times with the adults at the bars, Iona and Natu had played around with the other children and had been genuinely happy to be so carefree whilst Dezrin had helped out the townsfolk in many ways and had grown to be very popular, they didn't really have to change their names as Sora had not regained his former memories yet.

D: "I guess we go back to being villagers for the time being, Sora... Um... Yeah, Sora has already gone on some hunts, he'll probably become a full hunter in a matter of years, grow stronger then go to a school, his innate ability should make him grow strong enough to want to find a school - plus his dreams are most likely going to lead him there either way."

I: "Feels weird saying Sora instead of 'Azu', but I guess we're all getting used to it."

S: "Yeah, that'll all be good, we'll definitely need to get used to it when we go to the same school as him after all."

N: "Guess you're right."

The team began to talk about the fights they had just had, after a while, the talks slowly dwindled from their past lives and began to talk about their current ones, talk about getting drunk at a bar with someone or other mundane things. The heroes that had just saved this town from being destroyed slowly turned back into the normal people that helped out in the town, they had become popular in their 'respective fields' so no one was suspicious of them. Also, whilst the Legends or the Extremes did have profiles on them, one would rarely know how they look due to the fact that most battles would be too fast for someone who would have the time to make the profiles to keep up with. So no one found them out through the way they looked. This quiet, comfortable life of theirs would go on for the next 6 years. Sora would only grow more powerful and join the hunters, he rose through the hunter's ranks and eventually made friends with all of them too. Now a 16-year-old boy he was someone who enjoyed his job as a hunter, providing food for his village and being paid for it was a good feeling, he grew up to be very humble due to how his parents raised him too and was now one of the most popular people in the village, the children looked up to him and whilst there were many girls who had crushes on him, they never went up to him to ask as most of the young girls in the village were very shy, and any who were confident had aimed higher than Sora. Sora was growing to be more like his previous incarnation with some changes made, 'Azu' was a kind, humble man, who could easily lead a team and was very playful with his friends. Sora had become the same - what would happen after though, his journey, that would be the thing to shape him as a person and differentiate him from 'Azu'.

Sora didn't know about his team hidden in the shadows. He didn't know there were people looking out for him, up until now he had lived a very good life, he would get into the occasional fight with someone over a friend, he would win some and he would lose others but he mostly made as little enemies as possible. This quiet life would end soon, however, as the King recovers the danger to the realms only grew, whilst Sora's life would only grow more dangerous.

[Message From Artpyro]

Um, hey, Art here :P

I know that there's been a Ma.s.sIVE delay between the last chapter and this one, and lemme explain why. I've been kinda busy with Christmas and am still busy with New Years coming up. I just wanted to make sure you guys knew that I wasn't dead. I left a note saying that I wasn't dead and would be busy but apparently it didn't save, and that's weird cuz I checked. I'm either insane or something happened after that reverted the chapter to just the chapter without the note. Welp, just know that I will be continuing this with volume two, hopefully as fast as possible. Also just to make sure you don't get confused with it I'm going to be starting the second volume as if I didn't know Natu, Iona, Dezrin, Seth and Xion don't exist. It's because I want to put it under the perspective of Sora, not completely though. Ah, it's hard to explain, you'll see when I get to it :P

But, for now, I am really sorry about the lack of chapters, but, I'm not dead and I will continue when I'm done with the New Year celebrations. Sometime around halfway through January is when I expect to have time to start writing again, um, maybe earlier? Ah, I don't know :P

But yeah, really sorry, cya in a bit ^.^